Medals and mead mastery at NHC

This weekend marked the close of the 47th edition of the National Homebrew Competition (NHC). The most prestigious event of its kind for amateur producers of beer, cider and mead, it is coordinated and presented by the American Homebrewers Association (AHA). Winners were announced on Saturday evening at a ceremony in Kansas City, Missouri, which was live-streamed to entrants and the general public.

This was the first NHC since the AHA separated from its former parent trade organization, the Brewers Association, filing for incorporation as a non-profit in its home state of Colorado. Still, the event remained consistent, maintaining its longtime structure while recognizing excellence in recreational brewing across 34 beer categories, two types of ciders and four classifications of mead.

This year’s competition received 2,974 entries from 1,086 AHA members across 48 states, the District of Columbia and seven countries. A total of 120 medals were awarded in 40 different categories, and of those awards, eight went to entrants from San Diego County. Locals earned five gold medals (two for beer and a commanding three for mead), one silver and two bronzes.

In addition to those medal-winning performances, a pair of amateurs from local homebrew club, QUAFF, brought home Meadmaker of the Year honors. It was an exceptional braggot entered in the Specialty Mead category that secured that lofty title for collaborators Doug Brown and Alexandria Horn.

“Being named Meadmaker of the Year feels absolutely surreal! I couldn’t help but scream the house down hearing my name,” says Horn. “While this wasn’t my first competition, this was my first year entering NHC. I was confident, but knew I was competing against amazing brewers from around the country.”

Horn has much more experience crafting mead than Brown, but believes it was his wealth of beer-making experience that helped raise the overall quality of their entry.

“I’m honored to have worked with Doug on this entry. I feel like his knowledge of beer and mine in mead was the perfect combo in making a great braggot,” says Horn. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can come up with next.”

“I don’t really think of myself as a meadmaker, but was very fortunate to get to work with a phenomenal meadmaker in Alexandria,” says Brown. “As always at the final round of NHC, the level of competition was as high as it gets, so to win one of the event’s major awards feels very humbling.”

The following are all of the winners from the 2025 NHC with home cities and homebrew club affiliations, where applicable…

MAJOR AWARDS
Meadmaker of the Year: Doug Brown & Alexandria Horn – San Diego (QUAFF)

GOLD MEDALS (5)
German Wheat & Rye Beer: Thomas Atkinson, Poway (Independent)
Pale British Ale: Chris Erdos, Escondido (Independent)
Spice Mead: Ryan Fowler, San Diego (Independent)
Specialty Mead: Doug Brown & Alexandria Horn, San Diego (QUAFF)
Traditional Mead: John Bell, Poway (QUAFF)

SILVER MEDALS (1)
American Wild Ale: Theresa Wilks & Billy Lambert, San Diego (Independent)

BRONZE MEDALS (2)
Belgian Ale: Scott Rauvola, San Diego (QUAFF)
Pale Malty European Beer: Sean Bush, Oceanside (Society of Barley Engineers)

A complete list of winners from this year’s competition is available online